OFFICERS ON BOARD "MONITOR," JULY 9, 1862, AT HAMPTON ROADS
THE BREACHFORT AT PULASKI AFTER BATTLE
The most powerful fleet that had ever sailed under the American Flag entered the deltas of the Mississippi River on the eighteenth day of April, in 1862, to force the surrender of the largest and richest city of the Confederacy. The strategic value of New Orleans was greater than that of any other point in the Southern States. Its export trade in cotton and sugar was larger than any city in the world. The great fleet had sailed from Hampton Roads on the second of February under the command of a man sixty years old, who was born in Tennessee, but offered himself to the Union cause—David G. Farragut. This photograph was taken as he stood on the deck of his flagship "Hartford." From the firing of the first gun on New Orleans a rain of iron fell upon the forts. During the first twenty-four hours Captain David Porter's gunners dropped fifteen hundred bombs in and around the forts. The night was hideous with fiery meteors and the day dense with smoke and flame. The roar of the artillery was deafening and shattered the windows in the houses for many miles. For six days and nights the terrific bombardment raged. When Farragut attempted to run the gauntlet to the metropolis of the gulf he swept the shores with a continuous fire of twenty-six thousand shells—a million and a half pounds of metal. The Confederates pushed a fire raft down the river to the daring admiral's flagship and the "Hartford" burst into flame. While one part of the crew fought the fire, the others poured metal from her guns onto the enemy. On the twenty-sixth day of April, Farragut entered the harbor to New Orleans and on the twenty-ninth unfurled the Stars and Stripes in the city.
WITH flags flying and bands playing "The Star Spangled Banner," the troops from the transports, which brought fifteen thousand men under command of General Benjamin F. Butler, marched into New Orleans on the first day of May in 1862. Crowds of men and women surged the sidewalks cursing the Yankees and hurrahing for Beauregard, Bull Run and Shiloh. When Butler established military government over New Orleans the city had a population of about 140,000. About 13,000 of these were slaves. Nearly 30,000 of the best citizenship were fighting in the Confederate ranks. The city was on the verge of starvation. More than a third of the population had no money and no means of earning it. Prices rose enormously. Butler contributed a thousand dollars of his own money to relieve the suffering. Supplies were hurried from all sources and sold under Butler's orders at cost to those who had funds. The price of flour fell from sixty to twenty-four dollars a barrel. Butler proved to be a great organizer. The people were set to work cleaning and improving their city. His administration was always humane. The execution of a gambler who tore down the American Flag from the mint, and the condemning of a gang of thugs was his only show of the iron hand. This photograph shows Major-General Butler, with his staff, as he appeared in his fighting days. When leaving Lincoln and his cabinet to start on his expedition, Butler exclaimed: "Good-bye, Mr. President; we shall take New Orleans or you will never see me again!" With Farragut he kept his promise.
